nomadreader

The backstory: Correcting the Landscape  won the Bellwether Prize in 2004. The basics: In Fairbanks, Alaska, Gus runs a newspaper struggling financially, both for the familiar reasons and because of the local advertisers, who increasingly take issue with the paper's political views and are pulling their financial support. My thoughts: I majored in journalism in college, and I have a fascination with stories about journalists. I'm also fascinated by life in Alaska, so when I discovered this novel on my quest to read all of the Bellwether Prize winners, I was looking forward to it. Correcting the Landscape is a realistic, and depressing, look at the small town newspaper industry, but it's emphasis is really on telling the story of Gus, whose personal turmoil drifts into work, just as his professional turmoil is deeply personal. As a character, I admit I never felt connected to Gus, but Kowalski Cole's writing was so beautiful, I didn't care. The themes of socia...

The basics: The Orchardist , a debut novel from Amanda Coplin, is the story of Talmadge. When he was a boy, his father died. His mother took him and his sister west to an orchard in the Pacific Northwest. Tragedy continues to befall this family, as Talmadge's mother dies when he is 15. His sister disappears two years later, yet Talmadge lives on growing and selling fruit. When two young, pregnant girls, begin stealing from him, he tries to take them under his wing and provide food and shelter for him. My thoughts:  I confess: the description of this novel did not entice me to read it, but as it kept appearing on "Best of the Fall" lists, I took a chance, and I'm so glad I did. I think the word haunting may be approaching overuse for describing novels, but in the case of The Orchardist , it's apt. Coplin's writing is as haunting as her characters: "She'd had the look of departure about a year before she disappeared. A watchfulness. Stirrings of res...

The backstory: Accordion Crimes  was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 1997. The basics: Accordion Crimes  traces the lives of immigrants from a variety of countries  throughout the 1900's as a single green accordion ties the stories loosely together. My thoughts: From the very first pages, I was enchanted with the writing of E. Annie Proulx. I vaguely recall reading Close Range  in college, but I can't remember if I even liked her writing or stories. I'll remember her now. The downside to my love of her writing was her brilliant characterization, as I didn't realize when I started this book that it  was a series of (long) short stories. When the first story came to an end, I was devastated. In some ways, the book never quite recovered for me. Despite the significance of the accordion to both the characters and stories, the accordion was perhaps my least favorite aspect of this novel. As a narrative device, it worked beautifully. I loved the idea of an ob...

The backstory: Communion Town  has been longlisted for the 2012 Booker Prize . The basics:  The tagline for Communion Town  is "A City in Ten Chapters." Aside from setting the stories have little in common, but instead they give ten different perspectives on the city of Communion Town. My thoughts: I was immediately intrigued by the premise of this novel. I imagined the stories to have some overlapping characters and places. Instead, the more I read, the more convinced I became this book is not really a novel. Ultimately, it's a collection of stories that take place in the same city. I confess I enjoyed this book less as it went on, but Thompson's writing is superb. There were a few stories I didn't care for at all, but for the most part, the writing carried throughout the stories I liked and didn't like. Throughout the first three stories, I kept searching for the common threads, either in character, location or theme. I didn't find much, but there ...

The backstory: Commencement  was one of my book club's July picks. The basics: Commencement  tells the story of four friends, Celia, Sally, Bree and April, who met at Smith College and remained best friends as life took them in different directions after graduation. The four meet again at Smith for Sally's wedding and the novel unfolds in the present, as well as through flashbacks of their time at Smith. My thoughts: There's a feeling I get sometimes when I read that the writer gets me.  I don't only read to not feel alone in this world, but I celebrate when I come across a book that leaves me internally shouting, "yes!" in reaction to a character or a passage of writing. I lost count of how many times I felt affirmed by both her writing and her characters. J. Courtney Sullivan is one of those writers I celebrate, and although Commencement  is not a perfect novel, it was an utterly delightful reading experience from its first pages: "It was a hab...

The backstory: Don't Ever Get Old , the first mystery novel by Daniel Friedman, was one of my book club's July picks. The basics: Buck Schatz is 88 and a retired Memphis cop. When one of his old war friends dies, he learns his enemy from the war may have escaped Germany with a significant amount of gold. He and his grandson set off to find the man and steal the gold. My thoughts: Buck is a unique character. He's getting old, as he tells the reader frequently. He lacks a filter, which made this novel amusing, if sometimes crass.Initially, I appreciated and enjoyed Buck's perspective: "I’ve been around eighty-eight years, Detective, and I’ve found that it’s always a good time to be a wiseass." As the novel went on, however, his memory problems, aversion to technology and medical ailments became trite and annoying. I'm of two minds about this novel, as I did enjoy the experience of reading most of it. Hearing Buck's stories about the war were in...

The backstory: Babylon Sisters  is the second novel in Pearl Cleage's West End series. Although this book isn't a sequel to Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do  ( my review ), the main characters from Some Things  do pop up a few times here, which will delight readers who enjoyed the first novel. I first read Babylon Sisters  soon after it came out, and I'm re-reading and reading all of her novels this year. As I re-read it, I was amazed how many of the details I recalled. The basics: Babylon Sisters  focuses on Catherine, who describes her work perfectly in this passage: "What I do is coordinate and integrate services for programs assisting female refugees and immigrants. Atlanta is a magnet for people trying to make a new start in a new country, and even though the town’s natives still think in terms of black and white, in reality we’re looking more and more like the Rainbow Coalition." She's also a single mother to a smart, confident seventeen-year-...

The backstory: Gilead  won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2004, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2006. The basics: As Rev. Ames nears the end of his life in the 1950's, he begins a letter to his young son because Ames realizes his son is too young to really know him. Gilead  is that letter. My thoughts: Gilead  is a novel I'm been meaning to read for years. It's a character-driven, Midwestern narrative by one of our best contemporary writers. It should be a novel I love, yet I struggled to finish it and admit I was wowed by neither the story nor the writing. Gilead  seemed almost stream-of-consciousness at first. I appreciated that Robinson jumped right in: this novel is a letter from father to son; the reader's ignorance of these two characters is not the focus. As the novel progressed, more details began to be filled in, and the reader begins to understand the characters, setting and purpose. I enjoyed the ...

The basics: In Misfit, Adam Braver imagines the life of Marilyn Monroe, from childhood until her death, in brief vignettes. My thoughts: Reading this novel, I learned how little I knew about Marilyn Monroe's life. This novel isn't a comprehensive novel of her life, but Braver offered fascinating possible insights into certain moments, some quite well known and some that were not known to me. From the beginning, the focus is on the end of Marilyn's life. Braver intersperses more detailed events of the weeks before Monroe's death with a chronological narrative. The effect was at times sad, at times downright morbid, but mostly fascinating. This novel doesn't have much plot. For someone more familiar with Ms. Monroe's life, there would likely be no plot. For me, however, there were enough surprises added in with the known facts to provide a haunting context to a fascinating woman. What struck me as most impressive in this novel was not how well Braver got into ...

A new look Happy Sunday! If you've visited my blog in the past two days, you've probably noticed things look quite a bit different. I've been meaning to redesign it for quite some time. Although I loved my old design, particularly the gorgeous picture of an airplane flying over the globe, I wanted to have posts appear in black ink and a white background. I'm still tweaking a few things, some major and some minor, and I probably will continue to do so this week. As always, I'd love to hear what your thoughts and suggestions are. Summer television love I'm in the midst of my blissful two and a half weeks of vacation and have just enjoyed a relaxing week at home. I've been reading a lot, watching the Olympics, and catching up on my DVR. I finally started watching The Newsroom , which I'm really enjoying. I also had a mini-marathon of the first three episodes of Political Animals . Despite its poor reviews, I'm loving it. I expected to be wowed by ...

The backstory: Dare Me  is Megan Abbott's sixth novel. I've read and reviewed two of her previous novels: Die a Little  by and The End of Everything . The basics: Addy Hanlon, a high school senior, has been best friends with Beth Cassidy for years. Within the hierarchy of high school royalty, Addy is the lieutenant to Beth's queen bee. When a new cheerleading coach arrives at their school, Addy and Beth's world changes, and coach draws Addy into her world. My thoughts: Megan Abbott is the master of realistic thrillers. On the surface, this novel might not read like a thriller, or what we've come to think of as a thriller. The more I thought about this novel,  however, the more similarities I saw between this novel and The End of Everything , in which an abduction quietly moves at its realistic pace. Dare Me  is a thriller because the characters don't realize they're in a thriller, but the reader soon does. This rawness gives Dare Me  its edge. I read D...

The basics: When Jamie's best friend from college, Gretchen, suddenly dies, she's asked to serve as her literary executor. Gretchen was in the midst of writing a second memoir after the success of her first: Tammyland , part road trip to important sites for women in county music and part personal reflection on her own life and relationships. It was hugely successful and described as a honky-tonk Eat, Pray Love . With increasing suspicion around Gretchen's death, Jamie finds herself trying to figure out both what Gretchen was writing and what may have gotten her killed. My thoughts: Arsenault tells the story of Gretchen in three ways: excerpts from Tammyland , excerpts from notebooks of her second memoir, and through Jamie's primary narrative. They were all interesting, but the excerpts from Tammyland  were particularly enjoyable for me. To those who know me well, it's no secret I'm a big fan of country music (well, classic country and alt country mostly.) Mr. ...

July might have been my best month of reading yet. Thanks to a heatwave that left me inside near the air conditioning, a relaxing five-day weekend trip with girlfriends, and a generally low-stress time of year at work, I was able to read seventeen books! I was shocked when I saw the total number, although it does explain how I'm behind in reviews again! I hope I can keep up the reading pace (and level of enjoyment) in August, and I also plan to catch up on reviews. Even the titles I ended up rating somewhat lower, I still (mostly) enjoyed reading them. After I sat down to think about them, however, I began to see holes and thus assigned a lower rating. Here's what I read in July 2012: The excellent (rated 4.5 stars or higher): The Virgin Cure  by Ami McKay ( my review ) Close Case  by Alafair Burke ( my review ) Wild  by Cheryl Strayed ( my review ) The good (rated 4 stars): Kill You Twice  by Chelsea Cain ( my review ) The som...